The Sunday Mail
From Great Britain’s most decorated Olympian to the most decorated of them all, even the greats sometimes fall short. No sooner had Sir Bradley Wiggins racked up his eighth Olympic medal than Michael Phelps was back in the pool to claim his 27th. But while Wiggins was celebrating gold, Phelps had to make do with an extraordinary three-way tie for silver after losing his 100 metres butterfly title to rising Singaporean star Joseph Schooling.
Phelps finished dead level with Chad Le Clos and Laszlo Cseh behind the 21-year-old Schooling.
Afterwards, the American insisted he would not return for the Tokyo Olympics.
“I’ve been able to do everything I’ve ever put my mind to in this sport. And 24 years in the sport. I’m happy with how things finished,” he said.
“I’m ready to retire. I’m happy about it. I’m in a better state of mind this time than I was four years ago. And yeah. I’m ready to spend some time with (baby son) Boomer and (fiancee) Nicole.”
The silver still gave him nine more medals than his closest rival in the tally of modern Olympians.
The futility of comparing Phelps with his peers had already been laid bare this week when he supposedly surpassed the feats of Leonidas of Rhodes at the ancient Olympics more than 2 000 years ago with the 13th individual gold of his career.
He missed out on a 14th – and potential last – in an event he had last failed to win at a Games on his debut in Sydney.
The 31-year-old had also looked invincible in Rio, avenging his sole defeat in the Olympic 200m butterfly and winning the medley and both freestyle relays.
But the final individual swim of his career brought a unique pressure, one the likes of 2012 bete noir Le Clos, Cseh and Schooling were equipped to exploit.
Phelps had also only qualified fourth fastest from his semi-final, although that came minutes after a grueling 200m medley triumph on Thursday, which saw him start the final from lane two.
And while you would not put your life on anyone but Phelps to win a swimming race from an outside lane, doing so proved too tall an order.
He also had one more race to come, the 4x100m medley, which the United States never lose, meaning medal number 28 and gold number 23.
Michel Phelps is insisting that he won’t change his mind about retiring after the Rio Olympics.
The great American swimmer made that abundantly clear soon after the race and his 27th Olympic medal, a three-way dead-heat silver in the men’s 100 meters butterfly.
“No,” he said as the question was still leaving the journalist’s lips, a succession of further ‘no’s following in close succession.
“Done. (South African co-silver medallist) Chad (Le Clos) asked me in the award area and the Dwyers were chanting ‘four more years’.
“They did the same thing in London. The 800 free relay guys said four more years. . .No. I am not going four more years.
“And I’m standing by that.
“I’ve been able to do everything I’ve ever put my mind to in this sport. And 24 years in the sport. I’m happy with how things finished.”
Phelps said in 2012 he was retiring but he came back for one last hurrah after feeling he wanted to bow out on his own terms.
That meant winning back the men’s 200m butterfly title that Le Clos took from him four years ago, and he declared ‘mission achieved’ on that last Wednesday.
He has won four golds and a silver in Rio so far, taking his tally to 22 golds, and is not finished completely yet.
The 4×100 medley relay will be his final farewell.
After that, Phelps will hang up his cap – not the one he ripped in half before the 4×200 freestyle relay – and spend more time with his loved ones.
“Being able to close the door on this sport how I want to, that’s why I’m happy now,” he said.
“ With team mate Anthony Ervin winning the 50 freestyle gold, 16 years after he first won it, there will always be those who wonder if the 31-year-old Phelps might do another tumble turn and turn up in Tokyo in 2020.
“I will be in Tokyo. But I won’t be competing,” he said. – Telegraph.
